Natural OCDR I — Blue Carbon & Ocean Afforestation
How the ocean's living engine actually stores carbon at the coast — and why measuring that storage is the hardest problem in the field. Part 3 of 7 In Part 2, we split ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (OCDR) into two families and mapped them onto the sea's two pumps. This part takes up the category that works through the ocean's living engine — the biological pump — using photosynthesis to turn CO₂ into plant tissue. There are two technologies here. One protects and restores the carbon-storing ecosystems that already line the world's coasts ( blue carbon ). The other grows entirely new crops of seaweed and sinks them ( ocean afforestation ). They share a biological principle but differ enormously in maturity, durability, and — above all — measurability. Blue carbon: storage by burial Blue carbon ecosystems — mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass — store carbon in their waterlogged coastal soils. Blue carbon is the carbon held in coastal ecosyst...